Collapsible bowling alley



March 10. 1925- O. W. BLANCHARD coLLAPsIBLE BOWLING ALLEY l Filed Jan. 51, 1924 w 8 Q m 1NR w N Y n n( E mi v S Q um; T m rN\\ D" w w n 1 D f v r A L @if 1 *N \C C Avr.: l vn IVM Li 4. 19 JNWJ/ m .Mm mm 1H. j Nr,

Patented Mar.. 10, 1925.

OWEN W. BLANCHARD, oEsnrAUL, MINNESOTA;

coLLAPsrBLn BOWLING ALLEY.

Application led January 31, 1924. Serial No. 689,616.

l'To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that I, OWEN W. BLANCHARD, l

a citizenof the United States, residinv lat St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and tate of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Collapsible Bowling Alleys, of which thel following is a specification.

This invention relates to game apparatuses and the object is to provide a portable and foldable bowling alley of such Iconstruction that it may be easily knocked down and stored in a comparatively small space and readily set up again for use in one or more rooms, thus affording a domestic alley for amusement and practice.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a top or plan view of the 1mproved bowling alley.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. l. 0

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2.

F ig. 4 is an enlarged section on the line 4-4 in Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing 'b reference numerals, 5 designates the a ley proper which is an elongated Aplane made up' of hard wood strips secured on cross cleats 6 and given a smooth top surface for the balls to roll on as from the left in Figs. 1 and 2 toward the pit 7 shown at the right. Said pit is surrounded at three sides by a vertical guard 8 which is provided with stakes 9 detachably placed in Sockets 10. vSaid guard may have hinges 11 in its corners to make it foldable when it is to xbe removed from the alley. i

Attached to each side or edge ofthe main alley 5, by hinges 12, is a gutter 13 with a raised guard 14 at its outer edgel while the gutter itself slopes gently downward toward the left end of track 5.

The entire track or alley and its gutters are divided transversely into several sections. In the present drawing three Sections A, B, C the adjacent ends are at each ljoint 17 formed withl a tongue 15 .fitting snugly in a groove' 16 (see Fig. 4) so ras to insure an even surface at the top of the alley. Each joint 17 rests on a supporting block 18 placed upon the floor 19 and provided with inserted bolts 20 having each a wing nut 21. Slightly spaced away from each block 18 are angular brackets 22 secured under the ends of each alley section, preferably to the cleats 6 thereof, and having each a downwardly directed flange ,with

anotch 23 arranged to receive the adjacent bolt 20 and be drawn toward eachother or the intervening block 18 until the joints 17 are perfectly tight. Besides the vblocks 18 there'may `be several loose blocks 18a placed between cleats 6 and supporting the main alley 5 and its side gutters 13.

In the operationof the device, it is placed 'on the blocks 18--18a in a hall, a large room, or two adjoining rooms and the door opening between them and played in the usual manner by placing the regular bowling pins as at 24 near the pit 7 and knocking them down by rolling balls 25 in the direction of arrow 26 in Fig. 1. AThe balls are picked up from the pit 7 andV returned by way of the gutters 13, as indicated by the ball 25 in Fig. 3.

When the apparatus is to be stored or shipped, the blocks 18-18 are removed, the sections A, B, C are separated and on each of them the gutter sections are turned on the hinges 12 until folded under the main body section, as` shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3. This admits of placing the blocks' 18-18n and the folded guard 8 between the folded gutter sections 13 whereby the whole device may be put away in the'minimum of space when not in use.

The alley may be. made in various sizes for use in a dwelling or outdoors. The main'thing is to provide a bowling alley that is easyto set up and takedown and which will occupy very little space when not in use. i

What I claim is:

1. In a bowling alley comprisinga port- I able bowling track divided transversely into abutting sections, removable blocks supporting the adjacent ends of the sections and -means for securing the ends of the sections firmly together, each .of said sections having longitudinal side portions serving as return gutters for the balls used in the game, said gutters Ibeing hinged t the vmain section and adapted to rest on t e same supportin blocks as the main section and to be folde underneath the latter when the supporting blocks are removed. A

2. The structure specified in claim 1, and other removable blocks j supporting other parts of the track and com aratively thin ,cleats vfixed at the bottom si e of the track Aloo l los brackets toward each other and thereby force the ends of the sections tightly to- 15 gether.

5. A bowling alley havingva track with a pit at one end thereof and a detachable guard arranged about both sides and the outer end of the pit, in which said guard is 20 made of sec-tions hinged together so as to belfoldable into a small space. v

In testimony whereof I ture.

OWEN w. BLANCHARD.

aflix my signal 

